Didnt see that initially. Bart Haney?, you dont know whether to laugh or cry.

As for

Quote:

I have contacted Gene Parsons who reports that he is sure the prototype wasn't his design and he wasn't sure of it's orgin. Other early bender pioneers, Bob Warford and Dave Evans, have also weighed in that they weren't aware of this instrument at the forum www.bbenderguitars.com where there has been some spirited discussion regarding this guitar.

If indeed gene parsons was contacted he was just been polite. What he should have said is that he knew for a fact he would not be responsible for such a bag of s**t.

As usual. I guess people aren't falling for that line about Mr. Haney. Next time it comes up, I'm tempted to buy it, then hire a Co. lawyer for my pain and suffering. Bet a lawyer could have a field day with that one.

I sent the seller another email with very specific examples of conflicts in the "provenance" anecdotes - the inane Haney reference, the selling price of $300 wen on Youtube it's $150, the "Clarence needing money" idiocy, and the selling it in '70 - when he "needed money" (at the height of the touring schedule and his studio work) and being killed shortly thereafter - shortly being defined as 3 years later?

I told him flat-out that if it sold I will do everything I can to make contact with the buyer so legal action can be taken.

There goes the discount. The real problem I see is that to run "Buy It Now" ads, you can run them monthly and it only costs him less than $2/month unless someone actually bought it. This guy should have to pay a whole lot more than that for what he's doing. If he actually gets away with it, he'll be paying a serious payment when he 'meets his maker'.

The guitar has no historical evidence that can be backed by anyone with credibility or provenance to Clarence. That being said any story true or otherwise are equally possible making this guitar worth little more than was paid for it in 1970. Say Clarence did sell this person this guitar...It could have been 'gift' from an inebriated neighbor or fan.. You know..the kind of gifts that you cringe upon receiving but too polite to say no thanks

I agree wholeheartedly with this, Brian.

Just saw the guitar in the Ebay auction.....fake as the so-called Byrds drummer, Haney!!!!! Whoever falls for this one is a fool of the highest order!!

I sent this idiot of a seller an email via Ebay and this is his idiotic and changed response in reference to Bart Haney being a drummer for the Byrds - now he says that Bart Haney was a drummer for the Kentucky Colonels:

Quote:

Tony:

Thanks for your note about the Clarence White guitar. Just to let
you know, I have personally talked at length with George Gruhn along with a
telephone call to Gene Parsons and emails to Warford and Evans about the
guitar. I've been trying to honestly and accurately represent the
instrument for my client and for the sake of history and the true story of
the genesis of the b-bender and Clarence White's involvement. And, I'll be
perfectly honest with you - the existence of this guitar and my client's
dual claim that he bought it from Clarence AND that Mr. White told him that
he had shown it to Gene Parsons, directly contradicts Parson's assertion
that he alone invented the device and is it's progenitor. When I spoke to
Gene Parsons, he only would very carefully say that he "had never seen this
guitar". He didn't deny it's existence, call my client a liar, nor call
the guitar a fake.

So, I guess if you think the guitar is a FAKE,
you're entitled - and you might be correct. But then again, you might be
wrong and it might be the case that Clarence did indeed cobble the first
one of these together, show it to Parsons, get hit by a drunken gal in a
station wagon in a parking lot, and not be here today to settle the matter.
I, for one, can't really say one way or the other and I'm going to have to
let history or other witnesses from the times settle this out. All I can
say, and have said, is that this instrument appears to be authentic and
it's components are period correct and it is a credible prototype for the
later refinements seen in Marty Stuart's guitar and other known Parson's
creations. And, finally, that my client Lee appears to be a very sincere
and credible elderly gentleman who was, in fact, in California during the
stated time period - and that I've personally met with him and believe his
story. His apparent veracity and willingness to supply a sworn statement
speak for themselves.

By the simple fact, from Gene Parson's mouth, that one day Clarence while in a studio asked Gene to pull a string over the nut as a third hand, they then speculated "how" it might be possible to devise something (by some unknown method up to that point), plus that Gene and Clarence hadn't yet even settled on whether to pull the G, B, or E string, in which Gene then utilized the Fender pedal steel finger pull method for Clarence's Sunburst Tele.

Had Clarence even experimented on his own to create a sloppy bicycle hub pull on another tele, wouldn't he have shared that with Gene? "Hey, I tried to make a bender mechanism on my own using a bicycle hub. "What do you think Gene?" Rather than a broad suggestion of "how can we do this" instead of re-inventing the whole idea from scratch. To me that's proof enough that no prior attempt to create a bender for CW had ever been tried before. - Cheers, Scott

It's been awhile since we were updated on this one so I thought I would let everyone know it is back on ebay only this time far below market value now with an opening bid of $4830 plus you can make offers of which 7 have been made. It appears somebody still believes it's real or else they are trying to get a '68 Tele cheap. Anyway it seems Bart Haney still played drums for the Byrds back in the 70's. No mention of it really being for the Ky Colonels band. Has anyone talked to the late Bart Haney's wife to see if she has some photos of her husband beating the drums with the Byrds? Maybe it was with the Birds 60's group. I find this more interesting then the guitar story. Did Johnny Rogan really pass over this important member of the Byrds? So here is it for you to enjoy one more time:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CLARENCE-WHITES-VINTAGE-1968-FENDER-TELECASTER-B-BENDER-PROTOTYPE-/130542109589?pt=Guitar&hash=item1e64ea8395